Sorbet Mimosas & Oven Baked Hash Browns

Since things have finally calmed down from the holidays and the madness of trying to finish projects for the bedroom, we invited my parents to come up for the weekend and we had such a great time! They braved the winter storm Nemo and made it here Friday night just in time for us to head out to our mall for dinner at Gordon Biersch (I am obsessed with their goat cheese and hummus salad!). We split up on Saturday… my dad and husband went indoor golfing at Frog Hair and my mom and I went shopping around town. We wanted to try something new for dinner so we went to the Pan American Grille and Brewery which is part of the renovated and reopened Hotel Lafayette. Not only was the food delicious but I was dying over the decor. As you probably know by now, I am a big sucker for Art Deco style and this was it from head to toe. We had a great time trying new cocktails and watching the Sabres game. Sunday my mom and I cooked a big breakfast, which is where the two items in today’s post came from. My mom discovered the idea of swapping out orange juice for orange sorbet in mimosa and I wanted to show you guys how we make our own hash browns using the mandolin from my last post. I got a few questions about it so I’ll include all the info about it in the post and give you this cool alternative to the store bought pan fried hash browns! This would also be an awesome thing to make for breakfast in bed for Valentine’s Day! I’ll start off with the mimosas because they really couldn’t be any easier to make! Put a couple scoops of orange sorbet in the bottom of a champagne glass and carefully top it with champagne. The bubbles don’t dissipate as easily on their own, so I had to fill the glasses about half way and scoop out the bubbles with a spoon before filling the rest of the way. I got a few different questions about our mandolin via the comments on here and through email so I will give you all the info on that and then get into the hash browns recipe! We wanted to try one out last summer but were hesitant like a few of you guys are after hearing horror stories about people slicing the tips of their fingers off but after some research our minds were eased. Most of the new mandolins come with a hand guard which is a big plastic slider that has prongs for you to stick your food in making it next to impossible to injure yourself on the incredibly sharp blade. We decided to try out a cheap on to see if we liked it and it’s been so great that we didn’t even need to upgrade! Ours is an Oneida that we got at Bed, Bath & Beyond (don’t forget to use their 20% off coupon) and it comes with the mandolin, a hand guard and a set of different blades. It’s awesome and we use it for so many different things but check out some of these posts for some good recipes: BBQ Sweet Potato Chips, Squash Apple and Gorgonzola Gratin, Eggplant Pasta, Italian Subs with Chive Remoulade, Shaved Squash Salad with Thyme Oil & Goat Cheese and Seared Scallops with Shaved Spring Salad.

Okay, now onto this recipe! Preheat your oven to 425, placing a baking sheet in the oven to “preheat”, put the mandolin blade at 1/8″ thickness and slide in the smallest julienne blade (1). I then washed and peeled 2 lbs white potatoes and sliced them on the mandolin (2). Put the sliced hash browns in a large bowl, sprinkle with 1 tsp of kosher salt and let sit for about 5 minutes (3). This is going to season the potatoes but it’s also going to bring out a lot of moisture so you’ll need to use your hands to squeeze the potatoes out (4) before you go any further or they won’t crisp up like you want. Once they’re all squeezed out season with 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp black pepper and a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (5). Stir well and then spread out on your preheated baking sheet, making sure to spread out as much as possible so they can crisp (6). Bake until golden brown and crisp, flipping occasionally with a spatula. I like mine super crispy so I did 30 minutes, but change the time according to your preference.